Blue Roses
by heechul
Summary: In paradise, Yukari thinks, there should be blue roses. YukariGeorge.
1. start

**Disclaimer: **I do not, in any shape or form, own Paradise Kiss.

**A/N: **Well, I was reading Paradise Kiss and although I know it's rather old, it is definitely one of the best that I have ever read. And seeing as I have no idea how models are picked, please excuse any mistakes and if there is anyone who knows, any suggestions or even critiques are welcome.

-**Blue Roses**-

Yukari fingered the artificially colored blue rose, dried out and used as a bookmark. She was happy, she supposed, but she was also sad, she supposed, like George was. She was unhappy unless she was with him yet she declared her eternal love and happiness by Hiro's side.

So she was happy and she was sad and in the times when she didn't know who she belonged to anymore, she put on her butterfly wedding ring, symbolizing her first marriage over her wedding band, symbolizing her real marriage. She was a washed out model, and although her superiors would never tell her, the truth was that she was beautiful, yes, but lacked the magic that made so many famous. She wasn't working for herself, it seemed, not like the big names, but worked instead to show up someone else. And as everyone in the entertainment business knows, that can only carry you so far.

Yukari was still beautiful, tell you the truth and still young, enough so people mistook her for twenty two or twenty three even though she was almost twenty eight. If she wanted, she would be signed up for a modeling gig only if she had the magic.

There was no age too young to rediscover magic and the paradise it held. In paradise, there are blue roses.

In some ways, Yukari mused, she was like George's blue rose. She allowed herself to be experimented on and pampered but in the end, she was only good for a while. She was a white rose, she decided, but she was dirtied by George's blue dye.

Kaori, she guessed, was never a rose. Kaori wasn't even a flower, instead being something beautiful and wonderful and _amazing_. And the chase all too enticing for George not to take. Yukari was just one of a million beautiful yet never enough. Kaori, wasn't beautiful, Yukari could admit that. She wasn't half as beautiful as Yukari was, pretty, rather, in a simple way. But all George really needed was a person who wouldn't bend to him, the sun, but could fly blithely in the other direction, crash into a wall and keep on going.

Yukari wasn't like that. Yukari was a flower, through and through, and couldn't resist bending to his will. She had made one act of defiance, however, by not going with him because she knew that he didn't meet her eyes and that eventually, he would be happy and laugh the laugh that meant he was delighted. Yukari wasn't sure if she regretted it yet but she did know that she was terribly lonely. What with Hiro always away at work and Miwako busy at Happy Berry, she had nothing to do now.

She will never forgive Kozue.

"You WHAT? Listen, Kozue, I'm old now, and I'm well, I'm retired. I'm not beautiful anymore and don't you remember what you said? I don't have that 'magic'." Yukari held on to the phone tightly. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Now, Yukari, calm down. I think you'll like this job."

"Why?" Yukari snapped back. She was actually ecstatic that she even _had _a possibility of a job, but Kozue couldn't know that.

"You know the designer. He's an old friend of yours. George Koizumi."

**-x-**

"Is there a stage name you would like to use?" The bored receptionist was busy filling out some application thing for Yukari at Kozue's. Yukari thought for a moment, and then it hit her.

"Yes, I would, as a matter of fact."

**-x-**

"George, the new applications and head shots just came in."

"Okay, thanks. Drop them off."

George, being who he was, _needed _to see all of his possible models' applications, because as he himself said, only he "could find the models needed; the ones that have that _magic_." His assistant bowed himself out of his eccentric boss' office.

George's office, even, showed a reflection of himself. On every wall, strategically placed at 3-feet intervals, were pads of drawing paper because "you never know when inspiration might strike." Surprisingly, his office looked a lot like the old Paradise Kiss office. Not like he would he ever acknowledge that he was feeling nostalgic or anything though. He turned to the pile of applications and already, the first girl was out. Her eyes were ridiculously large and purple, and she had obviously had her nose done. George sighed and tossed it into the garbage can. He flipped through it nonchalantly, making noises of admiration here and there but he never stopped.

But he at one picture, he stopped flipping and dropped the rest on the floor. This picture was one of a girl naturally beautiful, with long, straight black hair, and naturally wide black eyes. He flipped over the photo to read the name. At the sight of the name, a happy sound filled the room: one of him laughing. His assistants in the hallway looked at each other in surprise. The last time they had heard their boss laugh, when that weird guy from the Glitter Planet, Seiji or something, came to visit, or maybe that time with the designer Kaori.

_Caroline._

**-x-**

Yukari smiled sadly to herself. Things never changed, did they? She wondered idly how she had ever let him go. Maybe it was Miwako's explanation that suited her best.

"_You never really let him go, Caroline. Because it doesn't matter how far you guys are from each other, as long as there's still the love, there is still a chance. Miwako believes that, and this is how Miwako gets through the times that Arashi is gone. Because Miwako knows that Arashi still loves her and Miwako still loves him."_

Standing in line with what seemed like a thousand other people, Yukari was suddenly aware of her flaws. Her eyes which had seemed pretty earlier, were too large, she was too tall, her nose too thin and high and her curly hair was messy now, not appealing. Her hands sweated nervously until she was first.

"Welcome to Blue Roses, miss."

**AN: **And so, that concludes the first chapter. Well, it's really more of a prologue. This is my first and probably will be my only Parakiss fanfic so please give me any suggestions!


	2. falling

**A/N**: Yeah, like Hiro died, but uh, don't worry, he'll at make an appearance in the next chapter. And he will not be a happy little boy. Aren't you all happy I actually updated? I've been dead to the world for like, a month or two. Thank you to all my reviewers.

**Disclaimer**: Ai Yazawa, not me.

**Blue Roses**

**x.**

Maybe it was because of her past experiences, or maybe it was because she had completely acquired that _magic _Kozue so often talked about, but she rose quickly, the strangely eccentric exams that she had no doubt came from George's own eccentric mind barely even _touching _her. All of them had very simple ideas behind them, despite the strange way they were presented.

Changing clothes, makeup and expression in less than 10 minutes tested versatility, walking under extreme conditions while balancing a book on your head tested posture and finding the one difference in two seemingly similar dresses, tested style and experience. Yukari had not only been prepared well, but her days with Paradise Kiss and all its members, Miwako, Isabella, Arashi and especially George, had taught her well.

However, she was surprised, that despite her quick rise into the ranks of the few who _had _managed to make it so far, none of them were especially beautiful. Rather, they all seemed to give off the same air as Kaori – a soft kind of pretty, a gentle kind of…_caring._ She felt out of place among these fair-hearted people and waited uncomfortably with the other 5 people in a small waiting room.

But of course, life never had really completely gone Yukari's way, for whom else _but _Isabella and George could come walking out of the adjoining door? Her eyes betrayed perhaps a momentary shock, but soon, her inky eyes settled, and any sudden emotion was locked away in the same place Paradise Kiss memories resided. She couldn't say the same for Isabella, though, for upon seeing her, promptly dropped all papers she was holding and rushed to Yukari, and grabbed her in a bone-crushing hug, exclaiming, "Carrie! Oh, Carrie! Fancy seeing you _here_!" Then not quite so loud, she added to George, under her breath, "You owe me fifty dollars, George."

Yukari grinned and awkwardly petted Isabella's back until she let go. Yep, Isabella didn't change much, now did (s)he? The other girls looked slightly taken aback at Isabella's outburst, and they all kind of exchanged wary glances and then shot a tremulous glance at Isabella, as if worried for her sanity. Yukari shrugged over Isabella's head. George shook his head, a bemused smile playing on his lips.

Yukari's breath caught in her throat. George was perhaps, the same man she left almost 10 years ago. With perhaps a few more wrinkles around his eyes and mouth that weren't laugh lines and perhaps – was that glint of silver in his hair? Yukari frowned. George shouldn't have to worry. George should always be the free spirit he always was. And somewhere, her heart said meanly, _that same "free spirit" left you_. But today, she refused to acknowledge the voice. George looked up, and caught her eyes with him, and a beautiful smile blossomed over his lips. She felt herself smile in response and thought, _that smile's for _me.

And then it was all business, but Yukari hadn't really expected George to be all friendly or anything. He _was _a professional, even if he didn't act like one most of the time and he _must _have matured in the time that she hasn't seem him. He held a clipboard, (Imagine that – George Koizumi! Holding a clipboard! What wasthis world coming to?) and in his silver-cold voice, he read off everyone's names.

He looked over at Isabella, who was still acting…unprofessionally and coughed. Isabella mopped her (or is it his?) cheeks and pulled out 6 envelopes, each bearing a different name. Isabella handed them out, and then once the envelopes were in their hands, George sent them all a look as if to say, _yeah, you can open them now._ With shaking hands, Yukari peeled away at the corner, knowing these simple white envelopes with the curling black script on front could hold either complete joy or complete despair. For a second she thought it strange, how she felt one envelope could decide her happiness. Then she remembered that she had similarly left her happiness to one man.

Some others were braver than she, and had already managed to get their envelopes open, some in silent tears (they _still _looked like Kaori, Yukari noticed, a little jealous.) and some with a look of poorly contained ecstasy on their face (which made them even more beautiful, Yukari thought. Then she thought, _I have to stop talking to myself._), trying to console the two crying girls. Yukari's heart pounded loudly in her ears and she noted, disgustedly, that she was about to sweat from pure terror.

But then she made the mistake of looking at George. George was smiling – no, that was a _smirk_. _He _was _smirking_! At her! He had no right to do that! Yukari narrowed her eyes at him, the sensible part of her brain telling her George did that all the time. The not-so-sensible bit of her reached for the envelope and with one fluid movement, managed to rip off the top of the envelope, imagining it was George's smirky head. She unfolded the letter, now with steady hands, and her eyes scanned the letter:

_Miss Caroline, _

_Congratulations, welcome to the Blue Roses team…_

And she didn't manage to get past that. She dropped the letter and sank into the plush chair, disbelieving. She had put her whole soul into this audition, and it seemed like it had paid off. (Inside, of course, she was doing cartwheels, but well, hey, _someone _had to be dignified.) She closed her eyes, and felt a single tear roll down her cheek. Isabella was right there, with a handkerchief, worrying that she was going to smudge her makeup. All the other "accepted" girls rushed over to congratulate Yukari as well, and for a second, Yukari wanted to be a good person, so she reached up and gave them all congratulatory hugs.

For a second she felt like saying to George, _I can be happy too! I have feelings! I may not have Kaori's heart, but I have _my _heart, George, and once upon a time, that heart was good enough for you._

Then she realized the idiocy of what she had thought, because she, of all people, should know that one cannot believe in the empty promises of people. But still, she thought, her eyes melting into George's, that _maybe_.

_Once upon a time._


End file.
